there is a method called cable drilling,
and here is a simple way,
Wellspring Africa's Hand Powered Percussion Drill
http://www.consallen.com/Why-cable-percussion.pdf
http://www.consallen.com/How-to-dril...Percussion.pdf
the way a rig worked was a winch that had the cable tools on it,
the cable tools consist of bits, jars, and a bucket, normally,
the bit was lowered into the hole to dig, the jars are unit that allows some jarring force so if some thing gets stuck to jar it loose more of a set of large chain links,
and the bucket was a pipe with a trap door in it to excavate the muck that was dug,
the rig normally had some type of trip on it so one would lower the tools into the hole and then it will pull it up and then drop it and continue until it dug so deep, more water would be added to the hole to periodically.
Borehole drilling rig for water wells (cable tool percussion method), pile driving, site investigation, workover, geothermal, prospecting, environmental, peizometers, remediation & geotechnical.
Profile -- Cable Tool Drilling, 9/18/94
many pages of old rigs
Portable Cable Tool Drilling Machines